Fiora's Xmas story
by Prinder
Summary: It's X-mas at the Maxwell house and Duo's wife (An OC) decides to tell him about what X-mas was like for her family when she was little (not as sad as it sounds!)


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Marry Christmas from the whole famn damily

Or an X-mas day with the Eleris

By Prinder  
(you mean Fiora!)

It was Christmas Eve at the Maxwell house and everyone was curled up by the fireplace with steaming cups of hot cocoa just enjoying the closeness, that is, all except one.

"Man! Remind me again why it is that I have to do this? All this family 'togetherness' is starting to get to me!" Fiora complained as she fought to detangle herself from the blanket that seemed to have attached itself to her legs in somewhat of a vain attempt to keep her in one place.

"Fiora, please? It's Christmas eve! Just this once? Pretty please?" Duo asked as he quickly jumped up, set down his cup of cocoa, and wrapped his arms around her waist in an attempt to lull her into submission.

Fiora grumbled to herself but slowly relaxed into his arms and returned to the place on the floor that she occupied before she got up and sighed. "All the more reason why it feels… well… it just feels, oh I don't know, not right!" she exclaimed loudly.

"What do you mean?" Duo asked as he took Solo's cup away before the little red-haired blue-eyed boy spilled it.

"Yeah Mama… what do you mean?" yawned Solo as he lifted his sleepy eyelids up at his mother.

"Well… it's a weird story, but I guess I could tell it. You see, way back when, when my Mama was still alive, we did things a little differently for Christmas…" Fiora replied as she leaned back and let the memories float back.

"You know that strange Christmas poem that everyone seems to tell? The one called: The Night Before Christmas? Well, if my family had written it, the first few lines would have said something like this:"

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*FLASHBACK*

Laughter and smiles galore fill the halls on the her father's ship the Gawm Caregu as family and friends gather together in group hugs, kisses, and remarks on how much the children had grown since the last time they all had gotten together. All seemed to be going well, that was, until a large CRASH sounded from the mess hall and everyone rushed in to see what had happened.

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T'was the fight before Christmas, 

When all through the house, 

No furniture left standing, 

No TV or couch, 

Or aquarium, 

Heck they even knocked over my chia pet! 

In what seemed like mere seconds everything within the ship was either broken/damaged/horribly maimed/mangled beyond belief.

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Me Ma was flung across the room by her hair by her sister Ethel who never fought fair.

A young girl with red hair and yellow eyes was hidden under a partly collapsed table as she watched her mother being yanked around by her silky black hair.

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LETS GET READY TO TUMBLE!

The sounds of screaming, shouting, yelling, and swearing were heard all though the ship as this all went on. And the little girl scurried out of her hiding place just as one of her uncles landed upon it, successfully smashing it into little woody bits.

The children all wrestled and jumped off the beds, 

Dropping elbows and knees atop each other's heads, 

She ran back to the crew deck, thinking that it was safer, only to get tackled by her two brothers and many of her older cousins in what they called a "dog pile"

And Mamma with her frying pan and Pa with his bat, 

Cleared half the room in ten seconds flat.

Just then, an old woman and a wrinkly old man ran/hobbled in, swinging a frying pan and a metal bat like the devil himself had landed into the room. All the kids promptly took off running for fear of being hit.

The whole brawl began over an innocent matter, 

When aunt Floe thought Eugene said, "She looks a whole lot fatter" 

It was by sheer luck that they were still on earth at the time of the start of the fight, for the young man known as cousin Eugene would have been sucked out into space if they hadn't.

She knocked him through the winder, 

He fell with a crash, 

Tore down the gutters, 

And busted his… LEG really bad!

The little girl ran out of the ship and found cousin Eugene laying on the ground moaning, and holding his poor leg that was badly mangled in a long piece of the metal shielding from the ship.

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*END FLASHBACK*

"You ought of seen it!" Fiora remarked.

"Yeah?" Solo asked, just a little excited about all the 'blood and guts' that were in this story.

"It looked like he was in a motorcycle race!" Fiora replied with a grin.

"No kiddin'?" Duo asked, turning slightly green from trying to picture the mangled leg of Eugene's.

"Yeah! It was awful; I couldn't stand to look at it!" Fiora said as she laughed at the weird look she saw on Duo's face.

"Why did they fight all they time anyway, Fiora?" Duo asked slowly, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"Well… you see, my Mama's side of the family didn't like my Daddy's very much, and they hated Daddy even more because he married my Mama, they thought that she was too good for him, you know? So you See…" 

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*FLASHBACK*

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See, both sides of our family never have got along. And every holiday something always goes wrong. You ain't supposed to fight but spread joy in this season, But when they getting it on they just look for a reason.

While the fighting was still going on the little girl rushed up to her cousin and looked around franticly for something that could stop the bleeding but was quickly pushed away by her Aunt Kiora who was carrying a first-aid kit "just in case"

In no time at all everybody joined in and right there we squared off with our closest of kin.

Without anything better to do, the little redhead walked slowly back inside the ship and, once again, got knocked down by one of her brothers and pulled into the blood bath that was going on.

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"It's the time for givin'," said Uncle Bill, as he gave a black eye to his brother-in-law Phil. 

I heard somebody say, "it's the thought that counts, and right now I'm thinking about knockin' your butt out!"

Surprisingly, the little girl heard all of this over the screams of the other kids as they finally pushed her aside for the fact that "she wasn't even trying" and that "she wasn't worth their time"

Presents and fists flew all over the room, 

And Nana had some pretty fancy moves with a broom, 

She took out three cousins and knocked down the tree! 

And I DUCKED! 

Just in time she swung out at me.

The little girl stood up only to dive back down again as Nana tried to "kill" her with the broom. The girl looked up slowly and spotted the Video Phone and with a sigh of relief, she smiled and started her way across the "battlefield" to it.

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It's my favorite time of year, 

Dad always has too much beer, 

Gets on the roof and hunts rain-deer, 

Marry Christmas from the whole famn damliy! 

Tie the antlers on the dog, 

Steaks and shine for Santa Claus, 

From all the in-laws and grandpas, 

Marry Christmas from the whole famn damliy.

She had to stop to rest/hide for a moment as she waited for one particularly nasty group of fighters to make it past her. She looked to her right where the window had been smashed apart by her aunt and cousin and couldn't help but laugh. There Daddy was wobbling slightly as he pointed his shotgun out the window and proclaiming "NOW I'VE GOT YOU! YOU WON'T GET AWAY THIS TIME MR. RAIN-DEER!"

I crawled to the phone, 

Lord it seemed like a MILE, 

And called 911, 

Which we keep on speed-dial,

The little girl made it to the phone, finally, and quickly pressed the speed-dial button.

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In a matter of minutes out the window appeared, 

Flashing blue lights and the sheriff John Deer,

Everyone froze for but an instant when the bright blue and red flashing lights stopped outside the ship and all held a collective breath as police officers stormed up to the door to the ship and started banging on it.

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Just then six men burst through the door,

Some yellin' "hands up!" 

Some "get on the floor!"

Everyone suddenly burst out laughing and ignored the cops when they charged in, waving their guns like they were lunatics, and screaming for everyone to "Freeze!"

A stray punch from Grandpa found the sheriff's chin, 

And just for good measure, he clocked him again! 

Grandpa Enid marched right up to the sheriff and punched John Deer square on the chin, once, TWICE!

It took all six cops to get Grandpa into cuffs. 

You know he gets feisty when he runs outta snuff.

The six police men hauled Grandpa out and fought him to the ground and into cuffs.

We all stopped our fighting and cheered grandpa on

Heck I thought he could take 'em, 

I guess I was wrong

Everyone stopped fighting and ran to the door and started cheering, the little girl included, and all looked very much shocked when Grandpa lost, the little girl just scratched her head like she didn't think it was possible.

As they dragged him outside he yelled, "I've been framed!"

He was kicking and screaming and calling them names.

"You _____ you ____ let me go, you ____ you do not eat ___ stupid ____ son of a ____" grandpa yelled every name under the sun and then some at the cops as they finished cuffing him and locking him into one of the police cars.

We stood on the porch, as did all our neighb'ras

Who always took interest in our family's strange behavior,

The little girl looked at the house near by their ship and saw the people that lived there were staring and pointing in shock at what was unfolding before them.

"Mind your own business!" We heard Grandma shout

And, "we'll take back the presents Dad! And come bail you out!"

The little girl only nodded in agreement with the adults and watched as the police read her grandpa his rights.

By now we had forgotten what we were fighting for,

We were battered and bruised but united once more,

She looked around at the rest of her family and smiled at the marks that would be bruises in a few hours, then looked down at herself and laughed, her family looked down at her and to everyone's amazement, they all cracked up too!

Then we all joined hands and sang "violent night"

Violent night!

All of the kids took each others hand and danced around the ship singing and laughing as they made up new lyrics for one of their favorite Christmas songs.

And we heard Grandpa exclaim as they drove out of sight: "marry Christmas to all, MAN that was a good fight!"

The little girl stopped and waved goodbye to her grandpa he the cops drove off, then looked up at her Mother as she put a hand on her shoulder and smiled.

Deck your neighbor, deck the halls,

Pictures of the little girl's family were taken every year on Christmas and slowly her hair turned from bright red into its rich mahogany and her eyes from yellow into honey.

Tis the season for a brawl,

And every year looked more beat up at the end of the fights, but so did her brothers, and cousins too!

From all of us, to all of y'all,

Two pictures hang side by side on the wall now, one with everyone in her family tree pointing at themselves, and the other pointing at the person who took the picture.

Marry Christmas from the whole famn damliy

As the years passed, and one looks at the pictures on the wall, one sees how slowly the little girl's family dwindles down to just her father, her brothers, one of her aunts, an uncle, and a few cousins.

Marry Christmas from the whole famn damliy

A small faded sheet of paper hangs on the wall next to the very last picture, it carries the words: "for the friends and loved ones that we've lost, we hereby promise to save the last fight for when we all make it to heaven (or hell, all depends on how you look at it) for we can't get the police to come anymore without the rest of you" then it goes on to list everyone that wasn't alive in the last picture.

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*END FLASHBACK*

Fiora smiles wastefully as she looks into the flames of the fireplace as she finishes her story and blinks back the few tears that still want to fall.

"And that's what Christmas was for we of the Eleri pack, it wasn't very glamorous, or pretty, but when it all came down to it, we didn't really care about Christmas, or the fighting, all we really wanted was just to let lose and be us without all that crazy stuff that people think Christmas is really about, I don't know about you two, but I for one never really did care for all that stuff under the tree, or the burnt turkey in the oven" Fiora said with a laugh.

"Fiora, are you sure you're okay? Aren't you always the one that doesn't want to talk about things at are always depressing?" Duo asked quietly as he scooped up the happily sleeping Solo into his arms and started to go upstairs.

"And with good reason, makes people like me think about all the other depressing things in their lives! I don't mind it anymore, the past is in the past… lets keep it that way, hum?"

Duo just smiled and nodded before they both curled up into bed for the night.

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Marry Christmas from the whole famn damily!

"Marry Christmas, Duo" Fiora whispered to herself as she fell asleep in Duo's welcoming embrace.

"Marry Christmas, Fiora" he replied softly as he kissed her on the top of her head and slipped into Mr. Sandman's dreamland.

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Well? What do you all think? It's kind of sad, but, I think it's also kind of sweet, tell me what you think! FioraEmbyr@aol.com Chio!


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